Subject 67
by herecomestrebl92
Summary: A first person story of a girl who is thrust into the Mass Effect universe. Having difficult and overwhelming odds, will she succeed?
1. Hello World

"Ow..." I mumbled while rubbing my head gingerly. "What happened?"

I open my eyes and I immediately know that I'm not anywhere near home. "Well, I suppose I'm not in Kansas any more" I joke to myself.

I was in a small room or a large closet made of some kind of metal, and a fluorescent light was painfully bright from my headache. I see a door with a small window. I stand up and stumbled across the room as my head was still spinning. I look through the window and I gasp.

"What the hell...?" I quietly exclaim

Outside of my room is an enormous space. It is made out of the same material as my little room, and what blew my breath away was the transparent material on one wall. It showed the pitch blackness of space and the stars. However, my amazement soon turned into fear once I saw a familiar symbol from one of my video games.

"Shit" I growled "Cerberus."

I saw someone coming and I ran to the back of my metal closet, but it was too late. They saw me and had a confused look on their face. A huge muscular male peered in, and opened my cell, but blocked my way out.

"I thought this cell was empty... Who are you?" He growled.

"I-I'm..." my voice failed to work due to the fierce glare he was giving me.

"Come here" He ordered "NOW!".

I nervously went over to him. He went and used what I thought was an omni-tool to scan me. "Hmm... looks like you're not in the system. Oh well, a new subject" He spoke emotionlessly.

'Oh shit..' I thought to myself, my heart beat thundering in my ears.

He grabbed my arm and dragged me off into a maze of hallways. The lights glowing ominously through the halls were reflected by the metal walls. We get to a door at the end of a hallway and the guard shoves me into the room when the door opens up. An older male with graying hair looks up.

"Who is this?" He inquires.

"Some girl that I found in cell 348. According to the system, it was an empty cell and there are no records of her." The huge guard responds.

"Ah, I see." The older man replies. "How did you get here, girl?" He snarls at me

"I-I d-don't know..." I shakily reply avoiding eye contact.

I hear him get up close to me and when I look up, he's in my face.

"I said, where are you FROM?" he yells in my face. When I give him the same answer, his hand whips across my face, leaving an angry red print. My head is still pounding from when I woke up and I groan in pain a little bit.

"I don't know how I got here, I swear." I plead to him.

"Are you with the alliance, girl?" He snarls.

"I don't know who they are, I just found myself here out of nowhere!" I whimper to him. My eyes prickling with unshed tears of pain and humiliation.

A few more questions and he seemed to start to believe me.

"Well, we DO need another subject after subject zero... She looks promising... Bring her back to cell 348." He instructed the huge guard who dragged me here. "But first..." I was dragged to a machine which held me in metal cuffs while I stood up. My ankles, wrists, and neck were surrounded by huge metal cuffs. The man grabbed a handheld device with a HUGE ASS needle and jammed it in my arm. I hissed with the searing pain, and then promptly passed out.

When I woke up, I was back in my cell, and a few new bruises were blooming on my back, and I assumed they threw me back in the cell. My arm was incredibly sore, and I looked at it. I gasped when I saw what it said:

"Subject 67..." I whispered fearfully. They had inserted a chip into my arm that projected it up onto my epidermis. I couldn't breathe, and I curled into a ball and sobbed until I fell asleep.

A/N: This is the first chapter of this story. I have a few ideas for this. Should I continue? Feel free to give constructive criticism :D


	2. A Flicker of Hope?

I wake up with a slightly less intense headache, and I slowly stand up. I wince slightly from the pain in my arm, but it wasn't too intense. I see a tray inside my cell with water and some kind of mush in a bowl. I hesitate, but my growling stomach forces me to eat the tasteless gruel. "It's a good thing that I'm not a picky eater." I mumbled to myself. I polished off the bowl, and silently sat cross-legged in my cell, just breathing deeply.

The door to my cell was opened and the huge guard once again grabbed me by the arm. I hissed in pain because that was the arm with the chip implanted. I was dragged down the halls and was once again in the sadistic doctor's lab.

"Ah, Subject 67, nice of you to show up." He said gleefully. I simply nodded and he scowled at me.

"Say 'yes, sir' or 'yes, doctor' whenever you are spoken to!" He snarled.

"Yes, sir" I said blandly. He continued on with his thoughts.

"Well, you seem to be an interesting subject. Perfect health, not a scar to be seen. We usually have prisoners or slaves who no longer behave in the facility, but I think you'll be different." He went on. "Because of your health, why don't we start out with a double dosage."

I shrunk back slightly and he notice. "Don't worry, only half of those who have gotten this have died immediately. Those who survive usually die a horrendous and painful death" He grinned with a maniacal look in his eyes.

'There's nothing I can do I suppose, so I might as well go with it' I thought glumly. He grabbed a needle from his table, and filled it with a blue-tinted liquid. I was again locked up in the contraption which held all of my limbs in place with me in an upright position. I looked away as I had never really liked needles. The needle was stuck into my arm, and the liquid was put into my arm.

I was holding back as best as I could from screaming, as the liquid was searing into my arm. I let out just a groan of pain, and my eyes watered. My jaw was clenched so as to not betray the pain that I was feeling.

"Now that wasn't so bad, wasn't it?" He sneered

"N-no, sir." I responded haltingly.

"Good, a quick learner. For that, you won't be punished." the doctor said too cheerfully.

I was let out of the contraption and dragged back to my cell. I was shoved in, and immediately, a wave of nausea consumed me. I was lucky that I saw a toilet nearby, and I rushed over to retch up my breakfast. In between bouts of vomiting, I would cough intensely as the bile burned my throat. My stomach soon calmed down and I sat in the corner breathing heavily and sweating.

I guess I must have passed out, because I wake up and sit up in my cell. Again, I sit on the floor and breathe deeply, as that is the only thing that keeps most of the pain at bay. But it was different this time from this morning. As I breathed, I started feeling a little strange. It felt like something was tickling my skin, and I felt slight flickers of _something_ outside of my cell. I couldn't tell what it was, it felt like flickers of warm light.

I went deeper into my meditiation-like state, and soon I almost didn't realize that a flicker was outside of my door. The light seemed to glow in an angry manner. Very rapidly, and it almost seemed like the color... red?

I jumped, and my eyes popped open as the meal tray was slid into my cell. Again, it was water and the gross-looking gruel. I stood up and peered through my little window, and saw the huge guard sliding trays under the doors of cells.

As I was eating, I was thinking, which helped me ignore the gross taste of the "food" they gave me. If that flicker of light was him, what does that mean? Could that substance have given me a power of some kind? "I guess it's making me a biotic of some kind." I muttered with my realization. With that thought, I became somewhat excited, as I had always wanted to be a biotic. But at the same time, I was scared. If they gave me more substances like that, could my body tolerate it? And most importantly, would I be used as a weapon when I grew stronger? These thoughts haunted me for quite a while.

But, I thought, I could grow strong enough to free myself! That idea got shot down as I realized that I'm in the middle of space. Who knows where I was? I thought some more, and I came to the conclusion that I must grow stronger so I can deal with my overseers who would probably have no problem beating me to the brink of death. As long as I didn't die, they wouldn't care how much or how hard they abused me.

I swore to myself that I would grow strong enough to defend myself and wait for however long it took to be rescued. By Shepard or otherwise.

A/N: Thanks to Rosethorn for her kind review! And maybe she'll join Shepard's crew, who knows? (hinthint :P). As always, reviews are very much welcome! If it is criticism, please let it be CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Thanks! :D


	3. A run for his money

The next "morning" I could call it, was the beginning of what they would call "training" while I would call it torture. I wake up in my cell, and I do my routine of deep breathing. I did it for a few hours, until I saw the familiar angry light coming towards my door. I open my eyes and see the guard open the door to my cell and grab me by the arm. I was dragged through hallways, but I went to another area.

The area was HUGE. It was the size of a football field, but none of the markings. I then saw someone who made my skin crawl.

It was an older man with graying hair, but still had the build of someone half his age. Ugly scars decorated his face, which made me think that he was an ex-soldier.

"She has the greatest potential we have seen so far in any of our subjects, so there are no boundaries." The guard reported to the man.

"Hmm... good. It's been a while since we've had someone who could be useful." The man said gleefully with a voice that was like cold silk. The guard left and locked the door of the arena.

"I will be your teacher, but believe me, I will not be going easy on you. Call me 'General' or 'Sir'" He instructed.

"Yes, sir" I said quietly. His brows moved down into an irritated scowl.

"What did you say, scum?"

"Yes, Sir!" I said crisply and loudly. I was met with a slap to the face.

"Don't raise your voice at me!" He barked

"Sorry General." I said apoligetically, but still able to be heard.

"Let's get this over with. I want you to run 10 laps around this room. No exceptions. If you slow down or stop, I have no qualms about beating you within an inch of your life." He ordered.

"Yes, sir." I responded. I went to the close wall and started to jog. I was met with a fierce kick to my ribs. I hissed in pain, but I didn't cry out.

"I didn't say go, yet." He sneered

"Sorry sir" I apologized again.

"Now, GO!" He roared. I started running. Let me tell you, I was never a great runner, so this was absolute hell. If I slowed down just a little bit, I would get a beating. But, my mind kept me going. With every slap, kick, and punch, I would tell myself that I would be getting stronger to one day escape. With my last lap, I grew frustrated. I wanted to push myself, but I had no energy left. My lungs burned, my legs ached, my chest hurt and every bruise I got hurt. I knew I could do this, I HAD to do this.

I closed my eyes, and I went into myself, and I felt the same tickling sensation, and I opened my eyes. A burst of energy came from nowhere and I sprinted to the finish. I noticed that I had a blue aura around myself. It faded as quickly as it had come. I looked at the general and he had a funny expression on his face. I saw a glint of victory in his eyes before they grew cold again.

"Ok, now block my strikes, and I'm not holding myself back for your pansy constitution!" He barked.

His fists flew at me, and luckily for me, I had at least some experience with this. I parried and blocked most of his punches, but some got through and knocked some of the wind out of me. I was slightly satisfied to see him breathe a bit more heavily while he was trying to hit me. Out of nowhere, a leg swung out in a roundhouse kick. My memory of Krav Maga had saved me as I burst into him while blocking and I threw an elbow into his gut when he was close. Before he could retaliate, I burst backwards out of his reach. This momentarily stunned him, but he came back with fury. I started to breathe heavily from the exertion, and soon we were both panting and sweating.

"Not bad, maggot. I see you've had a little training in this area, so we can move quicker." He spoke gleefully

I bowed my head out of fear and relief. 'One area that I'm decent at, good. That'll make my life a bit easier...' I thought. Little did I know how much easier that it would make my life.

A/N: Dun dun duuuuuuuun... foreshadowing! Haha... anywhoosies, sorry for the late update. I've been busy working and not having inspiration :P Again, feel free to review and give CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. I'll be heading back to school soon, so I don't know when my next update will be. I have a general idea where this story will go, but I have no details. Thank you readers, for reading and subscribing and whatnot. It really means a lot! Until next time... :D


	4. A New Fight

The weeks passed and due to training, I had gathered a plethora of bruises, but also lost some weight. Not that I had been huge or anything, but I definitely had a bit of softness around the edges. I found myself not losing my breath as much, and gaining more ease in running. I also had access to some more of my mysterious power, but I had to focus a great deal to use it.

They also sent in an arms specialist, and I was soon learning how to shoot. I found that I had a preference for shorter range weapons such as shotguns. My personal favorite was one they called the disciple. Yeah, it had less of a punch, but it was also lighter for my small frame. I was in the middle of physical training when the general had some news for me.

"Because of your progress, we've decided to put you into the ring with some others." he explained

"Yes sir." I answered

He continued "This will be a fight with no restrictions. Do what you must to win, and don't die. You're a valuable asset to the Illusive man."

"_So this is who I'm working for" _I thought to myself. I quickly shook other thoughts out of my head. I had to prepare for this fight.

I was escorted to another large room with shields around it. I stretched and got ready mentally, as well as reaching for my power. I walked over to a gun rack and picked up a pistol and my favorite the disciple. I inspected everything and made sure everything was in good shape. It was and I got into a ready position. The door on the other side of the room opened up and I saw some big guys in armor run in. _"Now or never"_ I thought.

First thing I did was count how many there were. _"Five"_ I thought quickly to myself. I dashed to some cover and ducked behind it. I pulled out my pistol and fired at them. The bullets bounced off of their shields. _"Damn it!"_ I thought frantically. _"If only my bullets were... That's it!" _I accessed my power and with it I coated my bullets with energy. I fired on them again, and this time it took a few bullets to take out the shield. I then got a bullet straight through their visor on their helmet. _"One down, four to go."_ I counted in my head. I whipped my body around towards the group of them, and fired again at them. I took out two of their shields and damaged the shields of one. I ducked under cover to exchange the cooling clip as the gun started to chirp at me. One of the soldiers that had no shield was running towards me. I dashed from my cover while shooting at him. Luckily, a bullet hit him in the leg and he fell while yelling in pain. _"Another one down"_ I thought. I got to the other piece of cover and had a quick breather. I had run out of cooling clips for my pistol, so I drew out my shotgun. I again infused the bullets with energy.

I came up from cover and shot at the other two. The other soldier with no shield took a few more bullets than expected, but finally went down after I shredded his armor. I dashed towards cover that was close to a single soldier, and popped up, catching him at point-blank range. I fired and he went flying backwards, his shields failing, and he stayed on the floor. Now where was that last one?

I had no sooner ejected the cooling clip when the last soldier ran towards me. I didn't have time to replace the clip, so I dropped the gun. I had no idea what physical attacks did to their shields, so I dashed full force into him using the same dash that I had used the first day of my training. I would imagine I looked like a blue streak hurtling toward the last soldier. His shields broke and he was pushed back a few feet, but he was still on his feet. _"Aw crap, this is going to be bad..." _I trailed off.

When close to them, I quickly realized they were easily twice my size. This guy had to be at least 6'4" easy! I got into my stance and he ran at me. I kicked at his hands, and his weapon went flying. We ran at each other and I threw a knee. It hit him in the groin area, but due to armor there, he only felt a sting. However, that was all I needed. I kicked his legs out from under him and jumped on top of him. Some thing snapped inside of me and I slammed my palm into his face. It was too late when I realized the blue energy around my hand.

I effortlessly crushed both his helmet and his skull. Blood and brains splattered against the floor. When I snapped out of the warrior mentality and looked around, an overwhelming nausea took over me and I proceeded to vomit up the food I had eaten earlier today. I coughed and spat, and it took a couple of minutes until I calmed my stomach.

I looked up and saw a man with glowing blue eyes looking down at me from a balcony I had not seen. He saw that I was looking at him, and grinned menacingly at me. He whispered something to the general, and left. I walked over to my shotgun and put in a new cooling clip. I then walked over to the gun rack and put my weapons away. The door opened and I walked through it, and the general walked towards me.

"The Illusive man has decided that you are ready for missions. You can go to your room and rest for now." He said with almost pity in his voice.

I nodded and said "Yes, sir" in an exhausted tone. I was escorted back to the cells, but we took a different turn. I looked at the guard questioningly.

"I was told you would be getting different quarters" the guard grunted. I nodded and kept walking.

We got to a door that the guard unlocked and there was another, slightly larger cell with an actual bed! Well, more like a cot, but anything was better than the floor. I walked in and sat on the bed and before I knew it, I was laying down drifting off to sleep. Little did I know, while I was comfortable on the outside, I would not be for long.

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it has taken forever and a half for me to update! I've been megaultracrazybusy with school, and I finally got rid of some stupid writer's block. Thank you for everyone with such nice comments, and now that I'm on break, I'll try my hardest to update regularly. Or, at least not as far between updates. As always, comments are welcome! :D


	5. The darkness within

I was walking down the hall in low and flickering lighting of a place I had never been before. I kept walking and walking, and I heard voices ahead of me. I went into a light jog to see who was talking. I finally found the source of it: that same man with the blue eyes glowing menacingly standing behind a middle aged male with darker skin wearing a flack jacket. The man pulled out a gun and pointed it at the military man's head. I inhaled sharply and squeezed my eyes shut knowing what was going to happen. I heard a BANG of a gun and woke up with a start.

I heard a few more bangs on my door and the burly guard yelled at me to get up. I jumped out of my cot and walked towards the door. I was then escorted down the hall to an experimentation room. I was instructed to sit on the bench and wait for the doctor. He left and I waited on the bench, going into my meditation. I felt him coming, so I quickly snapped out of it. He opened the door and walked in.

"So you seem to have turned tome heads of those who are higher up, hm?" He asked. "This will be interesting to see if my research can finally be recognized."

I just sat there listening, not saying a word. He mumbled a few more things under his breath and pulled out some syringes. I cringed a bit, but decided to calm myself down in my meditative state so he could do what he needed and I could go on my merry way.

It didn't work very well. I was soon growling and cringing as needle after needle was inserted into me, the contents pushed into my bloodstream, and retracted. Pretty soon I was screaming in pain, and I blacked out. But instead of just being dark, I saw the energies of the other people in the area. I had since realized that the patterns of their flickering told me many things about them.

I reached out further and further, and found that there were more people than I thought in the station. Some were being tortured, some were dying, and the rest were the guards, trainers and scientists. I guess I was the only healthy subject around. I then came across a very curious presence. One that seemed familiar somehow.

This person was different. His energy seemed... dark. He had something inside him that was almost... cold and robotic. Before I knew what was going on, the energy seemed to know I as there, and I saw it floating towards me. Not that the person was coming towards me, but the essence itself. It suddenly shot towards me at incredible speeds. It got to me and touched my energy, and made me cringe. It was searing and at the same time freezing. I flared up my energy, trying to deflect the perverted energy, but it seemed to shrug it off.

I started to panic now, as it continued to be exposed to me. As a method of last resort, I let my core energy burst out with everything it had, and that seemed to scare it, but it was too late. A little bit of it was absorbed into me, and what was once blue, began to turn a very striking violet color. Before the darkness left, I heard a rumbling voice in my head.

"As you pitiful humans say, you may have won the battle, but you will not win the war."

I woke up with a gasp, and realized I was back in my cell. I must have been dragged back by the guard. I thought about what had happened, and I came to the conclusion I must have been touched by something much more powerful than myself, or even humanity as a whole. What it was, I may have to find out, but for now, I had to survive this hell for a little while longer until I was strong enough to escape.

I focused on accessing my power, and found it much easier. I simply had to think about it and I was glowing. However, I was glowing a violet hue, the same as my inner energy when it was touched by the evil energy. How was I going to hide this? Perhaps I could say it was caused by the experiment. Either way, training tomorrow could tell me how my powers had changed. I went back to sleep in preparation for tomorrow.

As I thought, the general was pleased that I could use my powers with more ease. He kicked up my training a notch so that I had to learn to use my powers in creative ways. For example, when I had to go through obstacle courses, I had to jump using my power to give my muscles a boost in strength. I also had to climb up areas that normal people would not be able to, again, using my power to energize my muscles. This helped me exert them for much longer than I normally would be able to.

This took a few more weeks for me to fully master and to extend my power capacity. I would occasionally overextend myself and black out. This would lead to me waking up groggy and annoyed as I had very high goals for myself. I was determined to be the best I could in order to escape. However, I would soon find out I didn't have to wait long for an opportunity to do so.

A/N: Hey everyone! I think it's a new record for me for updating! Thank you everyone for such nice reviews! I'm back in the groove and I have more free time (because of a no job situation :P) so I'll hopefully have an update every few days or so. I know that there are many reviewers, but many of them say the same thing. So, to mix it up and make y'all have some fun, I'll add a little poll at the end of each chapter. The first one is (drumroll please): Do you prefer Shepard as male or female, and why? See ya next time!


	6. The Great Escape

I woke up to a huge "BOOOOOM!" and immediately jumped out of my cot. I was still woozy from my sleep, so I started doing jumping jacks and pushups to wake up. After pushup number 63, my door whipped open, and the general was standing there with an almost panicked look on his scarred face.  
>"Get out of there! Here's some real training. Move! Move! MOVE!" He screamed.<br>I ran out of there at his heels, and he pulled out his pistol, which I recognized as a Carnifex hand cannon. As in, if I made one wrong move my face would become a gaping hole with blood and brains oozing out. I had a feeling this would be my big chance to escape. I hoped the people attacking were at least a little better than these heartless bastards. I had to think quickly to escape with my face not becoming a large gaping hole in my head.  
>We arrived at our training area, which looked to be overrun with what looked like soldiers in full armor. I took cover behind some various boxes, and put up a barrier to protect me. Some smoke bombs went off with a <em>craaaack<em> after they were thrown by the invading force. Thick smoke floated across the battlefield, concealing everyone's movements. What most people didn't know, was my so-called "second sight" could see through the smoke. I closed my eyes, reached out, and got an idea of where everyone was. I charged up and smashed the floor with my fist, sending a burst of energy through the ground, knocking everyone in the room back, including the general. I fled towards the hallway.  
>I didn't know where I was running, I just ran through the halls looking for either weapons or shelter, preferably both. I spotted a door not much different from any others, but I burst in anyway. Luck was on my side as it was stocked with weapons. I gleefully grabbed my signature disciple, a pistol, and after much deliberation, a few grenades. Grenades were simple, I reasoned. Even a trained monkey could throw them. I shrugged and grabbed a holster-belt to hold my grenades, cooling clips and pistol. The disciple attached automatically to my back and I was ready to go.<br>As soon as I reached for the door, it slammed open, revealing a crazed guard who I had recognized as the one dragging me down the hallways on my first day here. Apprehension gripped me, and I quickly pulled out my shotgun. Before I could aim it correctly, a huge fist slammed into me, sending me flying across the room. Cringing in pain and seeing stars, I was unable to move for a few moments. As soon as I could think clearly again, the guard's big, ugly face was inches from mine.  
>"And where were <em>you<em> thinking of going?" He growled. "Not thinking of running away, were you?"  
>"No. I wanted to get some weapons to fight them off, without going on a suicide mission." I answered with false bravery in my voice.<br>Inside my head however, I was screaming like a little girl who'd wet my pants. He seemed to not believe me, so I went to plan B. I retracted my leg, then launched a front kick at him while infusing some energy into it. That did the trick of sending him flying through the door and slamming into the opposite wall. I regained my composure, and gathered up my equipment once more, and ran out the door.  
>All too soon, I was back in the main area, where the General was wiping people out ruthlessly and efficiently. I had no chance of going up against him alone, I reasoned. I had to find out who these people were. I dashed to cover, and charged up my energy to make a makeshift barrier of sorts. I found that while this was good for small arms such as pistols and some small SMGs, it couldn't stand up to heavier arms fire, and would collapse on me, but would save my rear if I was in a pinch.<br>I heard a roar of fury, and saw the General rushing towards what looked like a higher-ranked officer of the opposing force. His scarred face cringed with anger, and fired at the soldier. The soldier fired back, and their shields collapsed at the same time. I popped out of cover, and ran towards the two of them. The general reached the officer and slammed the butt of his rifle into his helmet, knocking him down.  
>As he positioned the rifle stock into his face, I charged in with a flash of purple, sending him into the wall. I didn't wait for him to come around and counterattack, I simply charged my energy to the maximum it could go, and with both hands, slammed into his chest, crushing his armor, chest and I assumed his heart. He slid down a bit from the wall, and a blank look in his eyes.<br>I turned around to see the officer pointing his pistol in my face.  
>"Who are you?" He asked fiercely.<br>"I'm a test subject who was sick of being a lab rat." I dropped my trusty shotgun and raised my arms in surrender. "I figured me killing him would be mutually beneficial for both of us." I reasoned. I also motioned to my tattoo, verifying my story.  
>He slowly lowered his weapon, but didn't put it away. I was fully expecting distrust, but hey, my face is intact and not full of holes. "Come with me, and you can answer some of my questions." He said. I nodded and followed him. The fighting was sporadic and gunfire was becoming more and more infrequent. I followed him to a ship in the landing bay and we both stepped in and sat down.<br>He unlocked his helmet and pulled it off revealing a rather handsome face. I felt rather plain with my unwashed face, greasy and knotted short brown hair, but this was not the time for this. I took a few breaths to recover from the fighting moments ago. I looked at him, as to say 'ready for the interrogation to begin'.  
>He sighed. "First of all, who are you? Other than being a lab rat."<br>"I don't really remember my name to be honest. I just found myself here after I woke up. The first thing I remember before waking up, is that I'm from New York, I'm from sometime in the 2000's, and I'm 23. I don't remember my career, family, marital status, or even my birthday." I admitted.  
>"Hmm, very strange. Well, I hate to be the one that breaks this to you, but you're about 150 years in the future." He responded.<br>"Wait wait wait; _what?_" I exclaimed, my jaw dropping to the floor.  
>He seemed to be rather entertained at my confused babbling. He continued, "Yeah. In that time we discovered the ruins of an advanced civilization, found out we weren't alone in the galaxy, and most recently, found out that we've been marked for destruction by a race of ultra-advanced AI."<br>My confusion built and built to a huge climax, and felt darkness pressing on me. I fell over, and the last thing I remember hearing was Mr. Pretty Face saying:

"Was it something I said?"

A/N: First of all, a big thanks goes out to socratescloset for looking over the draft of this chappie. You'll notice that the grammar is better than it normally would be, thanks to him. Also, thanks for the people who answered my question of the day. My next question of the day is: who would/ did you romance in any of the games in the series, and why? Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing! You guys are the best! :D


	7. Poking and prodding

I regain consciousness in what looks like a med bay. My body hurts from it landing hard on the floor of the facility. As I shoot up to examine my surroundings, a woman rushes over and forces me back onto the pillow.

"Easy there, don't hurt yourself," she says.

"Where am I?" I ask.

"You're on the SSV Dragonfire, commanded by commander Thalia Lass," the woman says. "I'm Sasha, by the way. I'm the medical officer of this ship."

"Nice to meet you, I'd introduce myself, but I don't remember my name. I guess you can call me Jane Doe," I respond.

She laughs. "Well Jane, you seem to have a lot to catch up on, although you are in need of a physical. It seems to be around — oh — 150 years since you had one."

I chuckle as she goes to work. I guess poking and prodding never went out of style for doctors. After the exam, Sasha comes back with my results.

"You seem to have few obvious signs of being a lab rat. You're just a little dehydrated and a little thin. How long were you there?" she asks.

"I dunno," I respond. "A couple of months, maybe? I overheard them saying I had the most potential they'd seen in a while. I guess they didn't want to mistreat me as much."

"Same here. Were you ever exposed to any type of radiation in utero?"

"Not that I know of," I say. "Why?"

"I guess that was part of the testing," she mutters to herself. "As far as I can tell, you are what we call a 'biotic'. This means you have telekinetic powers from exposure to element zero. What did they do to you?"

"I'm not quite sure, to be perfectly honest. They used me as a pincushion for their drugs and what not. It was a blue solution of some kind that burned like hell going in." I shiver at the reminder of that feeling.

"That's strange that they didn't give you an implant," Sasha says, rubbing her chin in thought. "Yet from your demonstration, you have fair control over your power. Would you mind if I look a little more?"

"Sure," I say, with a shrug. "Knock yourself out."

"Well, first things first. In order for me to keep going, you may need to shower before I pass out from the smell." She fans her nose and smiles.

"Gee, thanks jerk," I grumble.

I hop into the shower, and am thankful for my first real one in what seems like ages. I breathe a sigh of relief when the water runs clear after running off of my body, as opposed to a murky brown. I grab the soap and proceeded to scrub myself clean. As the bubbles spiral down the drain, I spend a minute just enjoying the hot water, for I don't know if I'll get to feel this good for a while. I shut off the water, grab a towel and wrap it around me. As I re-enter the med bay, I find undergarments and a stretchy unitard. As I pull them on, I'm tickled to find them surprisingly warm.

I sit back down on the bed and try not to get too comfortable. I hear Sasha coming back with her needles, ready to get started.

A/N: Hey everyone! I'm back from the dead! (Braiiiins...) As I'm on break, I'm working on writing and posting chapters, so I'm hoping to get at least two more up by the end of the month. Thank you all for your support and reviews. A special thanks goes to socratescloset for editing and just being plain awesome. Ships are silly.

Much 3

Me


	8. Mutant? Me? Nahhhh

I watch Sasha walk toward my cot. She directs me to lay on another bed that looks connected to an MRI machine. I lay down the way Sasha instructs and the test is underway. Like any normal medical test inicated by machines, there is a deafening humming sound. I feel a prickling sensation down my entire body and I shiver. However, it is over quickly, and I sit up as soon as I'm able to.

"So?" I ask "how much of a mutant am I?"

"Well, let's just say I'm surprised you aren't sprouting tentacles out of your face." Sasha says with a serious face which quickly breaks into a goofy grin. "Just kidding! But here's what I found."

She points to a picture on a screen. "The dark spots on the picture are a concentration of a material of some kind. After analyzing what the material is, and reading some of what that crazy doc had notes on, it made sense. They are nanorobots inside of you which have attached themselves to your nervous system." She indicates.

"So... what does that mean?" I ask

"It means that after they exposed you to element zero, they put in nanobots to be a replacement for an implant, which is normally a very invasive procedure. However, I guess Cerberus wanted to find a better way to do this." Sasha explains.

"Ok, so what made me so special?" I ask again. "Why am I the only one known to have survived this?"

"We don't know, it was an incredibly risky procedure, even riskier than an implant. They injected you with eezo, as well as the nanobots. You could've gotten various cancerous growths, or nothing at all from the eezo, and your body could've either rejected the nanobots, or they could have been incompatible with you and caused a lot of harm." She answered thoughtfully.

I nod. "What happens now?"

"I need to speak with the C.O. and the Alliance- the Earth military" She explains. "In the meantime, I'll have you set up with a bunk instead of bothering me 24-7."

I laughed and followed her to the bunk. She shows me to a large room with beds and motions toward one. "Here we go! There is home sweet home!"

I plop down on the bunk. Ah, nice and uncomfortable. The military did keep good on their promises. I stretch, not feeling any sense of drowsiness. I shrugged and decided to do some floor exercises until I felt tired. I start my pushups and revel in the stretching in my muscles. I keep on going, until a grunt walks in and chuckles.

"Y'know there's a gym, right?" he says.

"Really?" I squeal with excitement "Could you tell me where to go?"

"Yeah, sure. Although, I've never seen anyone _excited_to go to the gym... well except maybe some of those crazy jarheads." He shrugs with a smile.

I follow the grunt's directions and I end up in a pretty well-stocked gym. I decided to start jogging around the perimeter. After my months of intense training, I started to enjoy running once I stopped having the feeling of flamethrowers being shoved into my lungs. After my dashing, I decided to go for the ever-enticing heavy bags. I glanced over, and seeing no hand protection, sighing, reminding myself I had to go easy, or I'd split my knuckles.

"Left jab, right cross, bob and weave." I murmured to myself, doing the actions as I said the accompanying phrase. I moved around the heavy bag while doing the quick succession of strikes. I reversed my stance and did the order of movements, but mirrored. After I felt appropriately tired (and a bit dizzy from walking in circles), I cooled down with some rapid hammer punches to the top of the bag.

"Good workout, killer?" a male voice asked. I jumped and squeaked, as I had no idea I was being watched. I turned around, seeing Mr. Pretty Face chuckling. "I wasn't stalking you, I swear. I'm just under orders to observe you."

"Yeah, that's what they always say." I replied with some light sarcasm.

He looked surprised, and put his arms up, meaning no harm. "No, really. The C.O. told me to keep an eye on you. She said she wants to make sure your incarceration didn't make you psychotic like some other biotic prisoners." He shivered, obviously thinking about something or someone that freaked him out.

"Ok then, what have you assessed so far?" I asked, hands going to my hips.

"Well, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end on your left jab, that's for certain." He joked. "But on a more serious note, I don't have as much information as I'd like, so for testing purposes, I'd like to fight you."

"Er... ok." I shrugged "but just a few questions. What are the rules, and do you have any hand wraps or something?"

"The rules are no permanent damage, and yes, we have some hand wraps or something." He replied.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road then." I said.

"Alright" he responded.

We faced each other and went into our stances, keeping eye contact. I inhaled deeply, and then let it out slowly, readying myself for a sparring match.

A/N: Thanks everyone who is reading! I get really excited when I get alerts from new viewers who favorite the story! What I also like are reviews! (*cough cough, hint hint*) Also, as I forgot a question of the week last time... What class would you make your ideal Shephard, and why? Thanks for reading!


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